Vault 712: A Harry Potter Treasury
by PenPatronus
Summary: "Harry Potter" secrets before, during, and beyond the books in a list format. 7: "Godparents." 8:"Five Deaths." 9: "Quidditch!" 10: "10 Times Fred Weasley Cried." Starring Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, George, Snape, Luna, Neville, Arthur, Molly, Ted, etc.
1. Secrets: George Weasley

**Summary:** Secrets from the "Harry Potter" series in a list format categorized by theme, character, event, etc.

**Author's Notes: **"712" refers to the vault between 711, which belonged to Sirius, and 713 where the Sorcerer's Stone was stored.

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List One:  
**Secrets: George Weasley**

**1)** George Weasley didn't give up on his twin without one hell of a fight.

He managed to track down (steal, actually) one of the few Time Turners that hadn't been destroyed in the Department of Mysteries. His plan was simple: go back in time to the Battle of Hogwarts and use a Lasso spell to pull Fred to safety before the wall exploded.

Foolproof.

He didn't even get a chance to raise his wand on his first try. Malfoy and Goyle mowed him down when they retreated from the Room of Requirement. He froze on his second attempt, completely unable to move at the wonderful sight of Fred alive and laughing. On his third go he managed to yank Fred out of the line of fire just in time. Anyone watching would've thought the chuckling Fred had just tripped over his own feet. George was rehearsing what he would say to his resurrected twin when the dust settled and revealed Ron embracing a body.

"Harry!" Ron cried. "_Harry_!"

The damn wall had killed Harry Potter instead.

Harry, who'd been standing next to Fred at the time of the explosion, was next in line to die. Fred's body had protected his.

That just wouldn't do with fate of the Wizarding World and all. George reset the Time Turner and went back again. He used one spell to grab Fred and another to nudge Harry, but flying debris sent both Harry and Fred sailing out the hole in the wall.

Again, George went back. He tried casting a shield charm between Percy, Fred, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and that wall. Unfortunately, the Room of Requirement crumbled, once again resulting in Fred's death.

George must have tried four dozen times in four dozen different ways. Every single time, without fail, Fate either killed Fred or Harry. Sometimes one or both deaths took a few seconds or minutes longer to occur…By the eighth or ninth heart-wrenching death scene, George realized that Fate could not be swayed from one of two options: the death of Fred, or the death of Harry. George had to accept the fatal truth that without Harry Potter, the Wizarding World was doomed.

Without Fred, it triumphed.

For Harry Potter to live, Fred Weasley had to die.

George couldn't save his brother, but that didn't keep him from Turning Time once more so that he could say goodbye.

**2)** George felt like a ghost after Fred died. He was shadow that couldn't be cast because it existed where no sunlight could reach. Life just wasn't worth living when he wasn't _alive_. Life wasn't worth living when _Fred_ wasn't alive. George considered suicide once or twice. All he needed was a wand and a breath and that final straw.

But then, years of fog and fire later, he remembered something Fred said the night of the Battle of Hogwarts when they were somewhere in the tunnel between the Hog's Head and the Room of Requirement:

"Oh, please. Harry this, Harry that—as if I'd risk my life for that git who snogged my baby sister! I'm not fighting for him; I'm fighting for me—for us! When this bloody war is over I'm going to marry a Veela and spawn a Quidditch team of redheads who laugh at all my jokes! Hurry up, Georgie, let's get this over with—we have lives to live!"

George vowed that he would live for them both.

**3)** George missed Scabbers. It was just so hilarious watching the pudgy rat try to outrun the Burrow's garden gnomes. And that maze he and Fred made him run through when they were kids? Priceless.

After he realized that Peter Pettigrew had a hell of a motive to kill George's younger brothers, he had many daydreams of thousands of those garden gnomes swarming Pettigrew with miniature pitchforks and Muggle flamethrowers.

**4)** When George awoke on the Burrow's couch after they retrieved Harry from the Dursley's, he was rather surprised to find himself alive. The last thing he remembered was a searing pain and Remus Lupin yelling something quite rude at Severus Snape.

George was so disoriented and frightened that he pretended to still be asleep. He kept his eyes shut and his breathing shallow as he tried to adjust. He heard his mother fretting over him, heard Ginny commenting about all the blood, but George refused to open his eyes.

He couldn't bear to until Fred was at his side.

**5)** One secret that George kept from Fred was his crush on Angelina Johnson.

He didn't mind that Fred took her to the Yule Ball, or that he kissed her after that Quidditch match, or that Angelina only talked to George when Fred was around…

The one secret that George kept from Angelina was his fear that, if she'd had a choice, she would've married Fred.

**6)** George named his son Fred Harry Weasley not just as a tribute to his dead twin, and not just out of a desire to have part of his brother alive.

He chose that name because he couldn't bear to hear it only associated with tragedy. He couldn't bear the way his mother said it – or avoided saying it.

**7)** George always thought of himself as a decent, respectable guy until he had a thought that would torture him for his lifetime. For a moment, barely a fraction of a second, neurons ricocheted around his brain and formed the thought:

_It's a good thing Fred isn't here or I'd have to split the Wheezes profits with him_.

Angelina forgave him, and assured him that Fred would, too.

**8)** One night when it was George's shift to sit by his father's death bed, a delirious Arthur Weasley mistook him for an angelic Fred.

George humored his dad, and assured him that the Afterlife was truly wonderful, and that he, Olivia and Molly were waiting for him.

Arthur looked so peaceful.

**9)** George discovered the locket that Lavender gave to Ron. It took all of his willpower but he managed to not only not tease Ron, but to keep the secret from Fred.

It was the first thing he told Fred about when he joined his twin brother in their Afterlife.

They laughed about it forever.

**10)** During that no-man's land between Fred's death and his first date with Angelina, George's Patronus changed.

It became a monkey. His Patronus became the same as Fred's, just like Severus' became Lily's.


	2. Childhood Memories

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Two:  
**Childhood Memories**

**1) **One afternoon while playing hide-and-seek with his cousins, 7-year-old Albus Severus Potter discovered the attic at the top of the Burrow. After tiptoeing around a sleeping ghoul (who was wearing scraps of old pajamas), he found an old Quiddich trophy, a picture of someone named Fred (who looked a lot like his Uncle George), and a weird bowl of glowing liquid…

It was an hour before his family figured out what happened to him.

It was Harry who dove into the Pensieve. It was his memories his son was stuck in. He found Al in the Chamber of Secrets. Albus was watching his 12-year-old father battle a giant snake while his mother lay dying. Harry scooped his son up into his arms, got him out of there, and didn't release him for hours.

For the rest of his life, Al Potter had nightmares about dark mazes and green spells, black dogs and animated corpses, sphinxes, dementors and dragons and giant spiders.

**2)** When Nymphadora Tonks was a kid, her favorite prank was pretending to suffocate. She used her Metamagus powers to turn her skin blue and bulge her eyes. She made quite a scene, especially in the Great Hall on the first day of her first year.

Unfortunately her father never told her the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," and her mother never told her the story of "The Girl Who Cried Lethifold."

Once, when she was devouring Halloween candy, she really did choke on a tar-flavored Bertie Botts Every Flavored Bean. All the miming in the world couldn't convince the other students that she was in trouble. Tonks was about to pass out when a spell cleared her throat.

After she caught her breath, she looked up for her rescuer. That was the first wink she received from Albus Dumbledore, and it wasn't the last. That was also the first time Albus Dumbledore saved her life. It wasn't the last.

**3)** The summer that Harry Potter turned nine, a boy named Danny visited the Evans Family. Danny was also nine, skinny, and wore glasses. He was the anti-Dudley: funny, charismatic, active, glad to share his cupcakes and videogames. Danny taught him how to climb trees and play football. They caught bugs in plastic cups, built forts out of tarps and lawn chairs, and played in the small amount of mud that Privet Drive afforded.

One day, when Harry was telling Danny about a particularly nasty incident where Dudley stuffed an entire week's worth of garbage into Harry's tiny cupboard, Danny offered to put Dudley "in his place." He described all of the nasty things they could do to Dudley, all the bugs they could sneak into his food, all the wires to his TVs that they could cut, all the objects they could hit him with. Danny planned to trip Dudley into falling into a well and drowning him.

Harry Potter, being Harry Potter, declined Danny's invitation. After that he never saw him again. Danny quickly found new friends, friends who helped him pick on Harry for the rest of the summer. Harry didn't give that incident a first, second or third thought after he entered the Wizarding World.

At least not until he read Rita Skeeter's "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore," and found out about Albus Dumbledore's childhood friendship with Gellert Grindelwald. Danny tempted Harry just like Gellert did with Dumbledore. But unlike the young Albus Dumbledore, Harry kept his integrity.

**4)** At a foggy midnight, five-year-old Ron Weasley barged into his parents' bedroom and insisted that the ghoul in the attic was going to eat him. "I'm so little he won't even have to chew!" Ron pouted as he wiped his soggy nose on a pajama sleeve.

Eyes half-open and glazed with sleep, Arthur and Molly shared a knowing look. They'd overheard Fred and George teasing Ron about his height earlier that day. (Little did they know he'd be taller than both of them later!) Molly rolled back the bedcovers and Ron climbed over Arthur to nestle between them.

"That ghoul wouldn't stand a chance against you, son," Arthur soothed as Ron buried his face into Molly's chest. "You're strong and brave, just like Harry Potter."

Molly raised an eyebrow and Ron raised his face. "Who's Harry Potter? A Quidditch player?"

"No. A boy. A five-year-old boy."

Ron's face scrunched towards its middle. "A kid? That ghoul would eat him too! He's probably as small as me…"

"That doesn't matter," said Molly, catching her husband's drift. "Harry Potter defeated the most powerful dark wizard in the world when he was just a baby!"

"A baby?" Ron's face re-expanded in surprise. "No. Way."

"It's true," said Arthur in a bedtime story voice. "He was so tiny he could barely hold his own head up, let alone raise a wand! Think about it—if a little baby could do that, Ron Weasley could take on a silly ghoul!"

Ron sat up to prove that he could in fact support his own head, and puffed his chest out. "That ghoul doesn't stand a chance!" He mimed a few punches, aiming at something invisible in the air, before settling back down between his mum and dad. "But maybe, just for tonight, I could sleep here? You're really big, Mum, he'd be even scared-er of you…"

Molly scowled at her husband, who chuckled back.


	3. Close Calls

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Three:  
**Close Calls**

**1)** Make no mistake, Molly Weasley was an _excellent_ mother. But even an excellent mother will accidentally leave bathwater running when her twin sons set a houseplant on fire.

Nine-month-old Ginny didn't mind that the sink was filling with water. It meant that the bubbles were easier to reach, and her pudgy pink fists liked nothing more than to splash. But she did get a little nervous when the suds reached her chin. She squeaked in the direction of the smoke rolling in from the living room. No one came.

But then the rat on the windowsill, who was snoozing in the sunlight, woke up. He blinked, sniffed, and studied the baby, then dove into the water. Scabbers struggled against her flailing limbs for several seconds before wrapping his jaw around the plug at the bottom of the sink. He yanked it out, and managed to out-swim the whirlpool.

When Molly hurried back in a minute later, she found Ginny sitting in an empty sink, petting a shivering rat.

**2)** Hermione was in labor with Rose for ten hours.

Ron had Apparated away the day before on an urgent mission with the Aurors. He and Harry were in Egypt, a thousand miles away.

She couldn't stop crying. The pain reminded her of lying on the floor of Malfoy Manor, writhing under the Cruciatus Curse. She remembered Bellatrix's breath, the crack when her wrist broke, the feel of the floor each time her head smacked against it, the hiss of the fire, the sound of Ron screaming her name.

Impossibly, incredibly, the pain grew worse as the night went on. Worse than the Unforgivable. A half-dozen medi-witches fretted over her, and in her feverish state she heard the words "if" and "hopefully," and phrases like "too late" and "maybe we can still save the baby."

And then, in the tenth hour, when her voice was hoarse and her energy was spent, a freckled nose caressed her cheek and lips leaned into hers.

Ron was there. He whispered, "Hermione." The only other time she'd heard such fear in his voice was back at the Manor. "Hermione, _breathe_."

She forced her eyes to meet her husband's. And she said something Ron _never_ thought he'd hear her say.

"I can't do it…"

Ron shook his head and whispered, "You're Hermione Granger. There isn't a damn thing you can't do!" He cupped her entire face in his hands. "_Push_!"

**3)** The first in a series of assassination attempts on Harry Potter occurred just a few days after the Battle of Hogwarts. The Death Eaters neglected to lift their Imperius Curses, and the first order they'd given all of their victims was "Kill Harry Potter."

Stan Shunpike snuck into the Gryffindor common room and found Harry asleep on the couch. He got as far as saying "Avada-" before Ginny stunned him.

**4)** There were still Death Eaters on the prowl six months after Voldemort's demise. They were out for fun, not revenge. The blood they drank through Voldemort's lips wasn't nearly as sweet as the blood they tasted on their own.

They captured Ron.

They heard about Ron and Harry bringing down a troll when they were just first years. For their own amusement, the Death Eaters arranged a rematch, and Ron didn't have a wand. They tossed him into a pit and made bets on how long it would take the troll to rip him apart.

When Harry and Hermione found him (using the Deluminator), Ron was still on his feet. When Hermione returned two minutes later with reinforcements, only Harry was on his feet, protecting Ron's prone body.

Harry escaped with just a few broken bones. Ron was in a coma for over a week.

**5)** Harry Potter wasn't the only one who fainted on the Hogwarts Express when the dementors boarded. Dean Thomas had just walked into the loo when the wave of cold hit him. He heard his father screaming, heard his sister crying and saw his mother lying unconscious on the carpet.

Seamus found him, and Dean made him promise to never tell anyone.

**6)** It was bad enough when Fred's dad was bit by a snake, when his sister disappeared into the Chamber of Secrets, when he was banned from Quidditch, when Ron was poisoned…

…but the worst moment of his life was when his Harry-Potter-shaped twin was hit by Snape's curse.

He had a front row seat. He saw the curse hit George, watched him slump against Lupin while blood exploded from his head. He was slipping, mere inches away from falling off the broom and into some Muggle's chimney. Fred pleaded with his dad as desperately as Harry pleaded with Hagrid, but they had no choice but to retreat. Fred had never felt so helpless, so scared.

That night he didn't get a wink of sleep. He just sat on the edge of George's bed and looked at him.

**7)** When Ron Weasley was eight, he tried to shimmy up a tree after Fred and George, and ended up sliding back down it. A sharp stub of bark left a scar down the inside of his right thigh as long as a quill. It was in such an embarrassing spot that he refused to let his mother near enough to heal it.

When Hermione discovered that scar she couldn't keep her lips off it.

**8)** There were still dementors and giant spiders loose after The Battle of Hogwarts. It took weeks to catch them all.

One spider got past the Order and followed its nose into the kitchen.

Kreacher killed it with a saucepan.


	4. 10 Times Snape's Cover was Almost Blown

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Four:  
**Ten Times Snape's Cover was Almost Blown**

**1)** He didn't know that Voldemort was hiding under Quirrell's turban.

Even then, when he thought the Dark Lord was gone, Severus Snape was guarding his thoughts with Occulmancy.

Even then his discipline was _perfect_.

**2)** Snape saw so much of his younger self in Draco Malfoy. He was tempted to kidnap the boy and take him away from England, from magic, from Voldemort. He wanted to tell him about the choices that lay ahead. He wanted to tell Draco who he really was, whose side he was really on.

He hoped that Potter would. He hoped that when it was all over and Potter knew the truth, he would tell Draco what kind of man Snape really was.

**3)** _"Severus…please…" _

For years he only saw Lily in his dreams, but after that night on the Astronomy Tower, he only saw Dumbledore.

Albus had given him not only a second chance, but a brand new life.

But had Dumbledore damned him as well? Snape had to kill him to keep his cover, to solidify Voldemort's trust. Would he go to Hell?

No. Dumbledore was waiting for Snape when he got to Heaven. He welcomed him like a son:

"I'm so proud of you, Severus."

**4)** The lapse in concentration lasted mere microseconds.

If Voldemort's focus hadn't been on Dolohov, the daydream in Snape's mind of Lily thanking him for saving her son would've registered like a bomb on the Dark Lord's radar.

Everything would be lost if Voldemort found out about his love for Lily.

**5)** Severus Snape and Charity Burbage spent many evenings drinking tea, discussing the pros and cons of Cornelius Fudge and making fun of Flitwick's height.

Her pleas reminded him of Dumbledore's. If he saved her, it would almost be like saving Dumbledore…

Snape forced himself to watch Nagini swallow every mouthful.

**6)** Snape risked exposure, risked all of Albus Dumbledore's careful planning, risked his own life and Harry Potter's when he tried to save Remus Lupin that night over Privet Drive.

Snape saw that a Death Eater on a broom was in Lupin's blind spot. It was Rookwood. He raised his wand and pointed it at Remus. The tip turned green.

Snape reacted instinctively. He intended for his spell to hit Rookwood's wand. It did, but only after nipping one of the Harry Potters who was behind Lupin on the broom. Snape wondered who he had accidentally killed: Nymphadora? Granger, maybe? One of the Weasley's?

That made him remember why he couldn't risk blowing his cover for anyone, even a member of the Order.

He couldn't risk it because the innocent would continue to suffer. Innocents like George.

Innocents like Lily.

**7)** It took all of his restraint to resist snapping Amycus Carrow's neck when he tortured Neville Longbottom. Carrow's laughter made Severus' stomach squirm and his ears pop.

He didn't particularly like Neville, but the kid didn't deserve that.

When he was out of earshot of Neville's screams, Snape ducked into a lavatory and vomited.

**8)** Sometimes Snape hated Legilimancy.

The looks Minerva McGonagall gave him were almost as hateful as her thoughts.

Sometimes he would give anything just to have someone know who he really was—like Dumbledore knew.

**9)** Potter had been in the water for too long.

Snape began to take off his outer robes. It wasn't time for Harry to know that he was the one who put the sword of Gryffindor in the pool, but that wouldn't matter if Potter died.

He was about to run and jump into the water when the Weasley boy sprinted out of the trees.

**10)** How many times had the Dark Lord had his back to him? How many times could Snape have cursed him when he wasn't looking? But, no, Dumbledore said that Voldemort had to kill Potter. And, unfortunately, Voldemort had to be alive to do that.

Snape was especially tempted when Nagini and the Dark Lord were alone in the Shrieking Shack. All he had to do was raise his wand and it would all be over.

And everyone would know that he was a hero.


	5. 20 Times Hermione's Heart Broke

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Five:  
**20 Times Hermione's Heart Broke**

**1)** The chess queen cuffed Ron across the head, and when he hit the board he landed on that same spot. Blood smeared across the black and white tiles as the queen dragged him off to the side.

Minutes later Hermione emerged from the purple fire and found Ron still lying quiet and motionless. It was then that she noticed the ache in her chest.

She knelt beside him. Her knees were shaking. With her right hand she combed through his red hair and with her left she rubbed the ribs protecting her heart.

Why did her chest feel like it had broken in half?

**2)** Gilderoy Lockhart was a fake and a liar.

Hermione wept as if he'd lied only to her. As if he'd lied about loving her like he'd declared so many times in her fantasies.

**3)** The look on Harry's face when Sirius flew away on Buckbeak…

It was like he'd been given a death sentence instead of helping Sirius escape his.

Hermione ordered her empathy to be quiet, and prayed that Harry's pain could hold off as well. They had to hurry.

**4)** The look on Neville's face when the green spell pierced that spider.

**5)** Screaming at Ron in the Gryffindor common room. Ron had the nerve to say that Victor wasn't good enough for her, and that triggered a bomb that had been building in her chest and stomach for weeks. When the bomb exploded, she was surprised that the entire castle didn't crumble.

"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"

The louder noise was the silence right after. Why didn't Ron say anything? Why didn't he apologize and tell her that she wasn't a resort at all but beautiful and wonderful and that he was in love with her and kiss her…?

**6)** Harry clutching Cedric's dead body, refusing to let go. Dumbledore lifting him under the armpits like a toddler, and Harry swaying unsteadily on his feet like one.

She grabbed Ron's hand and they looked at each other.

Something in the world had shifted, and it would never fit the same way again.

**7)** It was dark when she woke up. At first she thought she was still in the Department of Mysteries but then realized that she was in the Hospital Wing. She squinted and saw Ron lying in a bed next to her. One of his arms was hanging off the mattress and under the sleeve of his pajamas was a thick bandage. Hermione wondered if that was where the smell of peppermint was coming from.

Someone whispered, "Hermione? Hermione, are you awake? Are you all right? _Hermione_!"

A face appeared above hers.

"Harry, where are your glasses?" Hermione was surprised at how weak her voice sounded. Her throat burned as if she'd swallowed gallons of briny water.

Harry sat beside her and Hermione gasped when a bit of candlelight caught his eyes. Tributaries of swollen red veins were popping out of the white, and a half-moon of bruise-colored tiredness almost reached his cheekbones.

"Oh, Harry…who? _Who_?"

She'd never been close to Sirius. In fact, she hadn't quite decided if she really liked the guy. He was reckless, impetuous, and irresponsible. He treated Hermione like a child and Harry like an adult.

But, as always, Hermione's heart broke when Harry's did.

**8)** Lavender had her stupid ankle wrapped around his, her stupid fingers in his hair, her stupid lips against his. He had his stupid arms around her stupid waist, and he was pulling her flush against his stupid body with all the urgency of a stupid drowning man.

Actually, Hermione's heart didn't break that time. It clenched into a fist and froze solid.

**9)** The Gryffindor Sixth Years got their gossip wrong. The rumor was that Ron was dead. When Hermione reached the Hospital Wing and Harry told her the real story, she didn't really believe that Ron was alive until she saw him breathing.

Her hands trembled when she placed them on either side of Ron's face and soaked up his exhales like sunlight.

The thousand frozen pieces of her heart melted when he said "Er-my-nee."

**10)** She hugged Harry with all of her might and fear and relief when he and Ginny joined her and the Weasley's in the Hospital Wing. She sensed an extra tenseness in him, an extra stoniness, but she figured it was because Greyback had injured Bill so badly.

"Ron—Dumbledore's dead," said Ginny.

Hermione suddenly felt homesick for the first time since she was eleven. She wanted to be a kid again, to crawl into her daddy's lap and have her mum stroke her hair. She wanted, for the first time since she was _never_-years-old, for wizards and werewolves and magic to only exist in stories where they were harmless.

"…and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him—"

Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth to keep the pieces of her heart from spilling right out onto the floor.

**11)** Hermione pressed her face against Kingsley's back and didn't care that she'd never even shook hands with the guy. Screams were on the winds rushing through her ears and green and red light surrounded her. The broom bucked like a spooked horse.

A body fell past them and disappeared into the Muggle neighborhood below. Moody.

She heard Fred scream "_George_!" She heard Hagrid's bellows, heard Tonks yelling spells and Remus cursing. And then there was only the wind and the thumps of Kingsley's heartbeats and the pulses of the thestral's bony wings.

_Are we the only ones left?_ she wondered. _Did anyone else survive?_

**12)** "I get it. You choose him."

**13)** Hermione's head was still reeling from Ron's words: "No! You can have me, keep me!"

Although Bellatrix was pulling her aside, Hermione caught Ron's eyes right before Greyback herded him around a corner.

Ron had always been an open book, and Hermione Granger was nothing if not a bookworm.

"I Love Hermione," was the title of his eyes.

She took comfort in the fact that he was directly below her while she flopped around like a fish out of water.

Through her own screams, she could hear his.

**14)** Harry was bleeding but he was moving and had her hand, and they were tripping through debris, and Percy was screaming a name and all she could register of the name was that it was one syllable. For a terrible moment she couldn't differentiate between the three redheads and she wondered if she and Ron's first kiss had been their last…

She hadn't braced herself for the impact. Not that anyone ever could, but she'd never considered what he meant to her, who he was, what he was about. She'd taken him for granted. She'd seen him just as a jokester, never taking anything seriously. He was just always there, as constant as the sun rising and just as ordinary. There like Hogwarts, there like the elephant foot in Grimmauld Place, there like the scar on Harry's forehead…like a rug on the floor.

She realized, when she saw his frozen eyes, that he wasn't _just_ anything. He was _something_. He was special. He was joy. He was love. He was brave. He was a clever businessman and a talented Quidditch player, a dependable friend and a loyal son. He was moral and loyal and fun.

He was their _morale_.

_Fred_.

**15) **The pieces of her heart couldn't get any smaller so they just whipped around her chest like a tornado, slicing her up until she was numb.

She stared down at Remus and at Tonks, dead on the floor of the Great Hall.

"Goodbye," she whispered. "I'll miss you."

**16)** Ron held her hand, and she held Ginny's as they filed out of Hogwarts. A fog from hundreds of hot spells hovered above the castle. Only a quarter of the walls were still standing. Blood stained the grass and the lake boiled. The Quidditch pitch had burned to ashes. Hermione felt Ron's pulse in his hand and heard Ginny's breathing.

The survivors of the Battle of Hogwarts lined up along the stairs, and the light from the open double doors cast their shadows down the slope towards the Forbidden Forest. The shadows down there were moving, and it wasn't just the dementors. Hermione saw Hagrid emerge, saw the Malfoy's blond hair, the red in Voldemort's eyes.

And then there was no oxygen left in the world.

Hagrid held Harry's dead body in his arms.

Ron's hand tightened around hers. Ginny's went limp and slipped out.

"No!" Ron roared.

"_No_!" Hermione cried.

"Harry! HARRY!" Ginny screamed.

**17)** When they went to Australia to find her parents, they had to kidnap them for their own good. The fear in her mum's face and the anger in her dad's eyes was too much. A last straw on a mound of last straws.

She cried like a baby when they got their memories back and _knew_ her.

**18)** The owl wasn't very specific:

"Accident on duty in Ireland—Ron is being rushed to St. Mungo's—come quickly. Kingsley."

Harry intercepted her the moment she Apparated into the hospital, practically tackled her to the floor. He was sweaty and shaking.

"He's ok now," he gasped into her hair. His voice broke. "_He's ok_."

**19)** She didn't know why Rose climbed the tree. James probably dared her to do it. She opened her mouth to tell her daughter to come back down when Rose slipped. Her red hair fanned out like wings. Her knees locked and her arms stretched out beneath her. She screamed, so scared, _so _scared…

Hermione raised what she thought was her wand. It was just a spoon. She had been cooking dinner in the kitchen. Her wand was sitting on the counter, useless.

"_WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA_!"

Later, when she asked him, Draco Malfoy had no explanation for why he'd been walking by or how he happened to glance over at the tree right when Rose fell from it.

Hermione and Ron sent him a Christmas card every year.

**20)** He was old—_they_ were old, granted—but it still wasn't fair.

Luna hung seaweed and peacock feathers over the bed, claiming that the combination extended life (Ron had remarked that the smell was far more likely to prematurely end it.)

He'd been asleep for a good fifteen or sixteen hours and Hermione was nearly falling asleep on her shift. Her shift at his death bed. But she was awake and instantly at his side when he spoke her name.

"What is it? Are you ok? Are you all right? What can I do?" she fired off.

Harry blinked at her. "I have to pee."

His answer blindsided her, and Hermione laughed so hard for so long that the laughs dissolved into hiccups and then into sobs. She took his hands in hers and pressed her forehead against his chest, against the lightning-shaped scar there. When she was able to see again she looked into his eyes and told him she loved him.

"Love you so much," he answered. His eyes were glazed and his breathing hadn't improved. "_So_ much," he repeated.

She was with him when he died. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, their siblings and friends and kids and grandkids and nieces and nephews were all with him when he died.

And, just as Harry had planned and hoped, the Elder Wand died with him.


	6. Al's Chocolate Frog Cards

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Six:  
**Al's Chocolate Frog Cards**

**1)** Albus Potter started collecting Chocolate Frog cards on his eighth birthday. He'd eaten the candy all his life but had never paid much attention to the cards. The only reason why one finally caught his eye was because there was a picture of his father was on it.

He read the title out loud: "Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Lived."

His whole family was sitting in the living room at the Burrow. All of the adults glanced at Harry and smiled.

**2)** Aunt Hermione was on the second card. There were lots of big words below her name. Al didn't bother trying to read them.

Hermione was smiling and waving timidly at the camera. Al waved back, and then waved at the real Hermione who was sitting on the other side of the couch.

**3)** When Harry looked over his son's shoulder to see who was on the third card, he said to Ginny, "Did you give him these ones on purpose?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, why?"

Al held up the card so that everyone could see. "Uncle Ron is on this one!" he announced.

**4)** He almost didn't recognize the woman on the fourth card. For a minute he squinted at it and held it at different angles to catch different light. Her face looked familiar but her hair was red instead of gray.

Finally Al gave up and said, "Who is Molly Weasley? She looks like Grandma Weasley!"

Everyone laughed, especially Grandpa Weasley. Al's grandma smiled and pointed at her heart. "I am, sweetheart. My first name is Molly."

Al looked back at the card and said, "Grandma, you were fat!"

**5)** "Hey, why is Neville on this one?" Al asked when he opened the fifth package. "What's a hor-ax? Why does he have a sword?"

"A sword? Cool!" James tried to take the card away but Al hung onto it.

"That's a story for another time, Albus," said Ginny. Lily was in her lap and Ginny hugged her tighter.

"But why is he on a card? He's a friend – he's not in our family."

The adults looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Finally Percy whispered to Ginny, "He doesn't know that the cards are about famous witches and wizards. He thinks they're just pictures of all of us, of his family."

James overheard his uncle. "They're famous wizards? But Neville isn't famous! Uncle Ron isn't famous! Dad isn't famous!"

**6)** While he was unwrapping the sixth card, Albus asked, "Am I in one of these? Is there a picture of me?"

"No, son," Harry said, "but maybe someday!"

"James isn't, is he? If he has a card with his picture then I want one, too!"

"No, James isn't on a card. The cards that come with Chocolate Frogs are about witches and wizards who did something important for our world."

Albus gasped when he saw his own name. "Hey," he said, "who is Albus Dumb…dire?"

**7)** His name was on the last card, too. His middle name. Harry held up the card to his dad and said, "This one's ugly."

Uncle Ron and Uncle George almost fell out of their chairs from laughing so hard. Both Angelina and Hermione smacked their husbands.

"Who is he?" Al asked.

"His name was Snape, son," Harry explained. "I named you Severus because of him. He was very special."

"Special? What did he do?"

"He helped me," Harry said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "He was a very, very important man. When you're old enough, I'll tell you exactly what he did."

Al carried the Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape cards in his pocket for the rest of his life.


	7. Godparents

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Seven:  
**Godparents**

**1)** The first time Sirius Black ever cried in front of another human being was when James asked him to be Harry's godfather.

It was a "manly" cry: red cheeks, swollen eyes, a few shallow teardrops and a half-hug while thumping James on the back (best-guy-friend speak for "I'm honored").

James vowed to make Remus the godfather if Sirius was going to be so "girlie" about it.

**2) **Kreacher nearly cried his frail old body bone-dry when Hermione placed his goddaughter, Rose Weasley, in his lap.

When Rosie grew up, he rode around on her shoulders, using her frizzy red hair like reins.

When Kreacher died, he willed his most precious belonging to her: Regulus Black's locket.

**3) **Bill figured that if Charlie could handle dragons, he could handle Victoire, Dominique _and_ Louis.

Charlie disagreed. He definitely preferred dragons, but accepted the honor of godfather anyway.

**4)** When Teddy Lupin's godfather, Harry, first changed the baby's diaper, he found out that Megamagi can change more than the color of their hair…

**5)** The first word Lucy Weasley said was "Hermy!"

She called her godmother, Hermione, "Hermy" for the rest of her life. All of Hermione's nieces and nephews did.

**6)** James Sirius Potter's godfather was Hagrid. He loved to climb the half-giant's limbs like a tree. He lost his first tooth in a rock cake. His first stuffed animal was a dragon sewn from one of Hagrid's old shirts.

When he was a teenager he rolled his eyes every time Hagrid started a story with "And one time, yer dad…"

But, in truth, he loved the stories. He never got tired of them.

**7)** Albus Severus' godmother, Luna, liked to take him on "Snorkack Safaris." They would crawl through knee-high field grass with goggles glued to their foreheads.

Al cried when his father told him there was no such thing as a "Wompleherder."

**8)** Hugo Weasley learned about his dad's fear of spiders from his aunt / godmother, Ginny.

Poor Ron woke up one morning with a tarantula on his nose.

**9) **Percy Weasley's daughters, Molly and Lucy, were very jealous of his godson, Fred.

Percy let Fred get away with _anything_.

**10) **Dean Thomas' godsons, Lorcan and Lysander, were as cute as their mother but not nearly as weird.

**11)** To Harry and Ginny's chagrin, Lily Luna Potter was more interested in mandrakes, seaweed and cacti than Quidditch.

"Uncle" Neville was to blame.

**12) **Angelina didn't let George teach Roxanne any tricks or pranks, like how to tie a gnome's ears together.

Uncle Ron became Roxie's teacher.

**13) **George took advantage of little Molly Weasley's Percy-ness. At age 10 she was practically in charge of the accounting at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

She was a serious little girl. She didn't laugh very often but when she did, it was because of her godfather.


	8. 5 Deaths

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Eight:  
**5 Deaths**

**1)** Ginny was _not_ Arthur and Molly's only daughter. Molly got pregnant with Olivia a month after she had Percy. Olivia was stillborn. She had a small tuft of red hair shaped like a halo.

Arthur and Molly rejoiced when they found out that they were having twins. It felt like God was not only blessing them with a new baby, but a second to ease the loss of Olivia.

Molly didn't sleep for three days after the Battle of Hogwarts. She spent most of the time crying and combing her fingers through Fred's hair. Arthur joined her when he could, but often got called away. The other Weasley's took turns sitting with her. George was there when he was sad but left when he got angry. Bill appointed himself George's shadow and went where he did. Charlie and Percy kept trying to talk to her but gave up after a couple tries. Ron sat at Fred's feet and sighed a lot. His eyes were as red as his hair. Ginny lay down with her head in her mother's lap, crying quietly into her dress.

Molly mourned for Fred but also for Olivia. Fred was almost a replacement (for lack of a better word) for her. It felt like she'd lost her son once and her daughter twice.

**2)** Lucius Malfoy committed suicide by casting the Killing Curse on himself. He left a note behind for Draco. Just one sentence, actually:

"Be a better man than I was."

**3)** Lucille Lovegood invented a spell that acted like a Muggle defribulator. In theory, the spell would restart a heart by sending a brief electric current through it. One morning while her husband was out, she told Luna to fetch the cat. Lucille poisoned its milk. When their pet's heart stopped, she cast the new spell.

It backfired. Her own heart was electrocuted.

Little Luna tried for hours to revive her mom and the cat. She thought they were just sleeping. Until she met Harry Potter, she thought she was the only one at Hogwarts who could see the thestrals.

**4)** On the morning of his 11th birthday, Hugo Weasley woke up to find a black crow sitting on his windowsill. It dropped a package into his lap and flew away. There was no card or note but the wrapping said "Happy Birthday" in red writing. Hugo opened it and was delighted to find a Chocolate Frog.

Hermione always scolded him if she caught him eating sweets before breakfast, so Hugo ate the frog before heading down to the kitchen. He was halfway down the stairs when the seizure hit. He managed to cry out, "Dad!" before his lungs swelled and he lost consciousness.

The poison worked swiftly. Within moments, Hugo died in Ron's arms.

**5)** Lily was _not_ Harry and Ginny's only daughter.

Nymphadora Minerva Potter was still born just like Olivia.

She had Lily's eyes.


	9. Quidditch!

**Author's Note: **Thanks for your reviews! Here's a happy chapter to help you get through the sad ones. I hope you enjoy X-Quidd.

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Nine:  
**Quidditch!**

**1)** They finished rebuilding the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch a week before school began again in September. Hundreds of people attended the big opening ceremony to see Headmistress McGonagall christen the "Dumbledore Memorial Pitch."

Pickup games started as soon as the ceremony was over. The Weasley family was an entire team: Percy, Ginny and Bill played Chasers, Ron was the Keeper, Charlie the Seeker and George and Arthur were Beaters. They all wore maroon shirts with a gold "F" in the middle.

Harry rounded up a random team to challenge the Weasley's. Once again he played alongside Oliver Wood. Minister Shacklebolt was a formidable beater. Viktor Krum tried his hand at the bat but was dreadful at it! Katie Bell spent most of her time trying to keep Neville Longbottom from falling off his broom and Dean Thomas surprised everyone with his athleticism as a Chaser.

They played until midnight, enjoying each other's company and laughing the whole time. No one kept score.

**2)** Hermione (and Ron, by default) organized mini-Quidditch games for House-Elves and Goblins. It was a good idea, but didn't catch on. The Goblins spent more time gambling on the games than playing them and most of the Elves were afraid of heights!

Kreacher, who was team captain of the Dobbies, was pretty good on a broom as long as he didn't look down!

**3)** With Harry's help, Teddy Lupin became an amazing Seeker. He broke every record that Harry Potter, James Potter and Charlie Weasley set, and he did so in his very first year at Hogwarts.

His Metamagus powers came in handy on the Quidditch pitch. If he wanted to distract the other Seeker all he had to do was turn his hair the color of a golden Snitch!

**4)** The Hogwarts Quidditch teams were no longer organized by Houses. There were still four teams, named after four Hogwarts Headmasters / Headmistress: Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and Dippet. Each team consisted of two Gryffindors, two Hufflepuffs, two Ravenclaws and two Slytherins. That equaled seven players with an eighth as an alternate. The teams were mixed up again every year.

The Sorting Hat was recruited to determine who would be on which team.

**5)** The only reason why Harry allowed the makers of the Nimbus 2000 to name a new line of brooms after him was because they agreed to give Hogwarts a hundred of them for free. Every kid who dreamed of being a Quidditch player wanted a Potter 3000. The handle of the sleek, black broom had a golden lightning bolt on it and the tips of the brushes glowed green when it flew.

**6)** Lee Jordan and George Weasley came up with the idea for "Extreme Quidditch" (nicknamed X-Quidd) after watching a Muggle event called the "X Games."

George blamed the Firewhiskey.

The rules of X-Quidd were basically the same as traditional Quidditch. The pitch was similar except that its gravity reversed at random intervals and the grass burst into flames if a Quaffle touched it. The beaters were armed with Dungbombs (George's idea) and two more bludgers were added into the mix (Lee's idea). The X-Quidd Snitch was smaller and had the ability to camouflage itself. They also created decoy Snitches called Ghosts. If a Seeker grabbed one of the Ghost Snitches, it disappeared.

The Seeker and Chasers were given special wands that shot two offensive spells and one defensive: a blast of wind, a flash of light and a shield. They could use the wind to move a ball out of their opponent's reach, blind them with the light and deflect a Quaffle or a bludger with the shield. Unfortunately that didn't work very well when the balls became invisible!

Another goal for the Keeper to guard was added, one that moved under its own will like the staircases at Hogwarts. If a Chaser got a Quaffle through that tricky hoop they earned double the points! The goal post would spit confetti and Weasley Wizard Wheezes fireworks. Also, in Harry's honor, the Seeker got triple the points if he caught the Snitch in his mouth.

A year after George and Lee pitched the idea to the Ministry, X-Quidd was an international success.


	10. 10 Times Fred Weasley Cried

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Ten:  
**10 Times Fred Weasley Cried**

**1)** Long after the rest of the Weasleys went to bed, Fred sat on his bedroom floor with George and wiped the blood off of his twin's skin. George fussed at him at first but then resigned himself to holding still. The throbbing hole where his ear used to be hurt less if he didn't move. They sat in complete silence. It took almost an hour to get all of the blood out of George's hair, off his neck and shoulder, his arm and hands. There was so much of it that it soaked through his clothing and stained his chest and stomach. When George was all cleaned up, Fred helped him change into pajamas and crawl into bed. George was out instantly but Fred barely slept all night. He just sat on the floor, leaning back against George's bed, listening to his brother breathe and staring at the blood-soaked washcloths through waterlogged eyes.

**2)** Fred's very first memory was of seeing his mother cry. He was too young to understand that she was weeping for joy that the Dark Lord was gone and the Wizarding World was finally safe. Fred tried to cheer her up in his own way by pinching her toes and making funny faces but eventually he just cried along with her because he didn't know what else to do.

**3)** His little brother was a pain in the ass. He got attacked by a chess piece in his first year, bitten by a dog in his third, strangled by a brain in his fifth and now he was poisoned. Fred wasn't sure what to expect when he and George took the Floo Network to the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, but he never imagined that anyone's face could look as pale as Ron's did.

Fred had to leave the room after Harry described what a close call it had been.

**4)** The Nosebleed Nougat was Fred's idea but George volunteered to be their first test subject. Nothing happened for a whole hour after he ate the candy, so Fred figured that the experiment was a failure. But then George's nose started _gushing_ blood. He lost so much in so little time that he actually fell off the common room couch. He fainted right when Fred and Lee got him to the Hospital Wing.

**5)** Cedric wasn't his best friend like Lee or George, but he was a great, standup guy. He was the type of guy Fred would let date his sister. Cedric's funeral was the first Fred ever attended. He managed not to break down in the middle of it, but did later on his four-poster.

**6)** He promised his mother that he would look out for Ginny, and he let them both down. Fred realized what it was like to cry for joy when Ginny got home safe from the Chamber of Secrets.

**7)** Fred didn't cry when the boggart in Defense Against the Dark Arts zeroed in on George and transformed into the depressing image of the Twins as ghosts. He teared up later that night when he remembered the look on George's face.

George had frozen. He couldn't summon a slice of his innate sense of humor to transform the boggart into something funny. Lupin had to step in to repel the boggart. Every Gryffindor in the classroom stared at Fred and George in shock. No one ever imagined that the Weasley twins had such depressing thoughts.

**8)** Fred took one look at the snake bite in his father's neck and ran to the lavatory to throw up. The tears on his cheeks felt hot and tasted salty.

**9)** Fred's tears were angry ones when Percy abandoned the family. He was furious. Not because of what Percy did to him but because of what he did to their mother. Fred couldn't bear to see her so upset at Christmas.

Sometimes he felt guilty. He wondered if he had teased Percy so much that he was single-handedly responsible for driving his brother away.

**10)** Fred didn't just die with a smile on his face.

He died with tears of laughter in his eyes.


	11. Secrets: Teddy Lupin

**Vault 712:  
**A Harry Potter Treasury  
PenPatronus  
Chapter / List Eleven:  
**Secrets: Teddy Lupin**

1) His Boggart was a wolf…

…and so was his Patronus.

2) His first kiss was with Victoire when he was fifteen. He was focusing on her so much that his Metamorphmagus ability changed his hair from red to silvery blonde. She laughed uproariously, and they didn't talk again for a year.

3) When he "came of age" the first thing he did was change his name. He added his godfather's name to his parents' and became Ted Remus Lupin – Potter. He and his wife Victoire named their first son Harry Remus Lupin-Potter.

4) The first time he ran away was the night that Harry and Ginny brought home their newborn son, James. Teddy was beyond jealous that Harry's attention was now divided. He hated that James looked like Harry and he didn't. He hated that "aunt" Ginny didn't have time to teach him some new Quidditch moves. He hated that "grandma and grandpa" Weasley came to visit the baby, not Teddy.

One afternoon while James was being passed around from lap to lap, Bill Weasley asked Teddy to take a walk with him. Bill knew how Teddy felt, what it felt like to be the firstborn and to have to share his loved ones with siblings. Teddy admitted what he was really feeling: "Harry's always with the baby. He doesn't love me anymore."

"I felt the same way when Charlie was born," Bill chuckled, but not in a patronizing way. "Sometimes I wanted to stuff him down a gnome's hole just so Mum would pay attention to me. But Teddy, a parent's love isn't like a cake that gets divided into pieces. It's not like you had all of Harry's love and now you only have half. It's a strange phenomenon but love always multiplies. He loves you both with all of himself."

Bill wrapped his arm around Ted's thin shoulders. "We all do, kiddo."

5) He never actually transformed into a werewolf when the moon was full but he was – as Hermione described it – "PMS-y." And, like Bill, he preferred meat that was almost raw.

6) Teddy never told anybody but Harry about his first adventure in the Forbidden Forest. He snuck out of Gryffindor tower at three in the morning. He slipped by the House-Elves who were monitoring the halls by using a decoy detonator that "uncle" George had given him. Hagrid's snores drowned out the sound of his sneakers as he sprinted into the woods. He told himself that he wanted to see a unicorn, but what he was really looking for was a werewolf.

Teddy wouldn't have seen the black stone if the gag of clouds covering the Man in the Moon's mouth hadn't parted at just the right moment. The moonlight illuminated everything in the forest except for a small rock that seemed to absorb the light. Ted picked it up. He rolled it around in his hand. He wondered if someone had dropped it and if it was valuable.

At first he didn't recognize them. But then the man gave Ted a proud smile and he saw that the woman's hair was pink. From the photos he kept at his bedside he thought his mother was taller and that his father had bigger muscles. He didn't think that Remus was that old or that Nymphadora was that young. He had never noticed that he and his father had the same hands. He had never noticed that he and his mother had the same heart-shaped face.

They spoke to him, said his name. His father seemed weary but proud. His mother was bouncing excitedly on her toes. Ted tried to talk but he didn't know what to say. There was no word or combination thereof that was appropriate for seeing your dead parents. So he just nodded and waved and listened and cried.

He sent Harry an owl the next day, and Harry himself visited that evening. He brought a book of fairy tales with him tried his best to explain to Teddy what he witnessed.

7) When he was sixteen he jumped off the Hogwarts Express. A _moving_ Hogwarts Express that was taking the students home for Christmas. Ted had learned to Apparate and wanted to see if he could get home before his grandmother left to pick him up. Lucky for him, "Uncle" Ron Weasley intercepted the alarm that activated because Ted had used magic outside of school. Ron found him in the snow alongside the tracks and returned him to the train before he was missed. Ron promised that he wouldn't tell on him if Ted agreed to help him find the right Christmas gift for Hermione.

8) Harry upgraded Fabian's watch when he gave it to Ted for his seventeenth birthday. It had the time, but also the Marauder's Map.

9) He loved it when Victoire called him "Teddy Bear."

10) He died young. Young for a Muggle, let alone a wizard. His blood was poisoned with a type of cancer that not even magic or Dr. Luna Lovegood's potions could cure.

He was 38.


End file.
